1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing L-phenylalanine by fermentation, and particularly to a method for producing L-phenylalanine with a microorganism of the genus Bacillus constructed by a gene splicing technique.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, in order to render a wild strain capable of producing L-phenylalanine by fermentation, it has been necessary to induce artificial mutants from the wild strain. In this regard, there are many known L-phenylalanine producing artificial mutants.
Examples of known phenylalanine producing microorganisms include mutants of Bacillus subtilis (J. Biol. Chem., 242, 4948 (1967), mutants of Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium resistant to phenylalanine-analogue (U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,235), mutants of Corynebacterium resistant to phenylalanine-analogue and requiring L-tyrosine for growth, and mutant of Brevibacterium resistant to phenylalanine-analogue and tryptophan-analogue and requiring L-tyrosine for growth (U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,353).
Another approach to increase the productivity of phenylalanine in microorganisms is suggested as to Escherichia in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 165798/1979), in which Escherichia coli strains transformed with a recombinant plasmid DNA and constructed by a gene splicing technique to produce L-phenylalanine are disclosed.
However, it is desirable still to produce L-phenylalanine by fermentation in higher efficiency than the known methods.